A new Federal law requires medicine containers to be equipped with child-resistant caps or closures to avoid injury or death to curious children who seek access to the contents of containers. Generally, the child-resistant closures which have been developed to satisfy the requirements of the law require a complex manipulation to release them from the containers, so that normally only an adult will be able to open the container of medicine or the like. The required complex manipulation of the closure is usually a plural step movement thereof, such as turning aligning and lifting, or pressing inwardly, turning and lifting, or some similar combination of manipulative steps. A typical example of the patented prior art relating to child-resistant closures for medicine containers is U.S. Pat. No. 3,432,058 of Mar. 11, 1969 which exhibits a closure or cap for medicine bottles which must first be rotated to align an internal lug thereof with a notch provided in a flange on the neck of the container, followed by a lifting of one side of the cap while the lug is aligned with the notch. Quite a large number of arrangements have been devised in the prior art to satisfy the requirements for a child-resistant closure for medicine containers and the above-identified patent is merely an illustrative example of the prior art.
It is customary in the interest of convenience and cleanliness of containers to supply medicine containers to pharmacists with the closure elements in place thereon. This avoids separation and loss of the parts and assures that the interiors of the containers are in a clean condition at the time of being filled. In the case of child-resistant closures, a rather serious problem has arisen in connection with the necessity for the pharmacist to constantly remove the safety closure from the container prior to filling the latter with medicine and reclosing it. This problem concerns increasing opening time and discomfort and irritation of the fingers of the pharmacist who must manipulate the closures during an entire working day. Because the child-resistant closures require a series of movements or steps to release them, and are purposely made difficult to manipulate for the protection of children, it takes the pharmacist longer to remove the safety closures from the containers and the pharmacist's fingers by the end of the day are frequently very sore and uncomfortable to the extent that some of the skin may actually be damaged and this slows him up even more in opening the containers and substantially reduces the number of containers he can fill in a day. This condition has led to many complaints by pharmacists and thus far no satisfactory solution to this annoying problem has come forth. With the safety closures a pharamicst can no longer fill the same number of medicine containers in a day as he could in the past and this is causing an increase in medicine cost to the consumer.
Accordingly, it is the objective of this invention to completely and satisfactorily solve the above-discussed problems of lost time and finger irritation through the provision of a uniquely constructed reversible or combination closure for medicine containers which is first applied to the container so as to seal the same against the entry of contamination and to maintain the container and its closure in assembled relationship prior to use. In this first applied position of the closure element, only a very quick and simple release procedure by the pharmacist is required for separating it from the container. This may consist of a simple pulling or twisting or lifting movement, such as that customarily required to remove a bottle stopper or simple snap or screw cap from a container. Such a procedure, even when repeated many times during the day, will not tend to cause any noticeable discomfort to the fingers, will not slow down the pharmacist, and will permit him to fill as many containers with safety caps as he has been able to fill in the past with non-safety caps.
In a second use position of the same closure on the same container following the removal of the closure in its first-applied position and the filling of container with medicine, the closure becomes a child-resistant safety closure which requires a more complex manipulation in order to separate it from the container. Thus, by means of the invention, a simply unitary reversible cap or closure alleviates the annoying problems of lost pharmacist time and finger irritation as commmonly caused by the constant handling of child-proof or safety caps. At the same time, due to the easy reversibility of the closure, the advantageous practice of furnishing containers and closures to pharmacists in assembled relationship is retained, and all of this without any appreciable cost increase. Additionally, in situations where no children are present, the combination cap embodying the invention has the added capability of being used as a simple stopper or cap without the safety feature.
It is a further object of the invention to provide any form of child-resistant medicine bottle closure with means for applying the closure to a container in a non-safety position for the stated purpose of eliminating finger irritation and discomfort and lost time in opening containers on the part of the pharmacist who must manipulate the closures time after time while filling prescriptions. In essence, therefore, the closure of the invention is a two-position closure for use on the same container which in a first position of use is easy and quick to separate from the container and in a second position of use is more difficult to separate from the container while providing the required child-resistant features.
Other features and advantages of the invention will become apparent during the course of the following description.